Chapter Thirty:  Putting The Pieces Together

When Evangeline exited the painted realm and entered her cottage, she found herself wondering if Remus would still be there.  She wanted to see him again, to thank him for saving Severus' life, and to see how he was doing.  With a guilty shock, she realized that she hadn't given Remus' feelings a second thought when she'd leaped into Severus' arms back in the Forbidden Forest.  She'd been so relieved to see her husband alive and had been so overwhelmed by his loving response to her, that concerns for Remus had faded into nothingness, and she was sorry and rather ashamed about that.  Remus had been so kind to her and in return she'd given him nothing but pain.  She knew that she didn't deserve his loyalty and his compassion and certainly not his love.

She came out of a seascape into the quiet of her studio, and as she crossed the room her most prized painting spoke to her.  "Good evening, Evangeline.  I'm rather surprised to see you back here this evening."

With a smile for the Potions Master, she approached his painting and asked, "Why wouldn't you expect to see me?  I've come back every evening."

"True, but the werewolf said that you'd reconciled with your husband.  I assumed that that meant you'd be spending the night with him.  Is there a problem after all?"

She shook her head in reassurance.  "No.  There isn't a problem.  In fact the future looks pretty wonderful.  I'll be moving back to Hogwarts to be with him again just as soon as possible, but tonight…well, he had something else that he needed to do this evening, that's all.  I'll see him first thing in the morning."

The portrait raised an eyebrow at this slightly evasive answer, but refrained from questioning her any further.  "I'm glad that things have been resolved between you and your husband.  You deserve to be happy, Evangeline.  I'm sure that you will be now that he's back in your life…and you've finally managed to shake off the attentions of that annoying Gryffindor."

At the mention of Remus, a flush of guilt ran through her again and she eyed the portrait Snape thoughtfully.  "You said that Remus told you that Severus and I had reconciled.  Does that mean that he's here?"  Her eyes flew to the doorway into the sitting room as she contemplated going to look for him.

The portrait snorted shortly and grimaced as he crossed his arms and replied, "He was here, but thankfully he's gone.  Hopefully never to return.  You're well rid of him if you ask me."

A frown crossed her face as she turned back to the portrait.  "Did the two of you argue?  Were you rude to him?  He had a very trying day.  He really didn't deserve to be talked down to by you this evening."

Snape raised an eyebrow and regarded her with faint amusement, "Are you afraid that I might have hurt the sensitive wolf's feelings?  Well, you needn't worry.  He didn't seem insulted by anything that I said to him…unfortunately.  Although he wasn't exactly thrilled to hear the truth, he did seem to finally accept defeat in the matter of your relationship.  I doubt if he truly understands your love for your husband, but he does seem to have accepted that the two of you are going to be together, and that that fact leaves him rather out in the cold."

A shiver ran through Evangeline as she thought about Remus and how alone he must be feeling right now.  "Yes," she whispered sadly, "Yes, it does."

With a murmured good night for the painting, the somber witch turned and left the studio, passing into the silent sitting room where she paused and looked around.  This place had been a welcome haven for her during a time of absolute despair.  It would always feel like a place of refuge, but it wouldn't ever be an easy place to live again.  There was too much pain wrapped up in these rooms…and too much wolf.  Quietly she moved through the cottage looking for any sign of Remus, but he seemed to have been quite thorough in his picking up.   He hadn't been able to remove all reminders of his presence though she realized as she paused by the Christmas tree that he'd helped her to pick out and decorate.  The golden ornaments that he'd shown her how to create sparkled brightly on its boughs and increased the melancholy in her heart.

Slowly she climbed the stairs and checked in the spare bedroom where most of his things had been.  His bag was gone, the dresser empty, the portrait must have been right; he must've packed up his things and gone back to Hogwarts.  Probably he felt that she was unlikely to need his company any more now that she and Severus had reconciled, and he was right.  Guilt stabbed even more deeply at her.  Remus was such a wonderful man, and she'd enjoyed being with him so very much.  If only her heart hadn't already been totally captivated by Severus, she knew that she'd have been happy to have had someone as wonderful as Remus in her life.  Shame ran through her once more as she thought about their relationship.  She'd hurt him deeply and there was no way to repair that kind of damage.  Emotional scars can be so much deeper than physical ones.

When she turned to leave the empty bedroom, her eyes fell on the painting that she'd given to Remus for Christmas.  He'd left it behind.  She couldn't really blame him.   It probably was a painful reminder of things he'd rather forget.  Feeling much sadder than she had before, she returned to her own bedroom.  As she magically lit the candles upon entering the room her eyes fell on a shirt that lay crumpled up and partially hidden under the side of the bed.  It appeared that he hadn't taken everything after all; she crossed the room and bent down to retrieve it.  When she straightened up she balled the soft fabric up in her hands and buried her face in its folds inhaling the scent of its owner.  Sharp images of Remus filled her mind, regret and sadness prickled at her conscience, and she sank down onto the bed.

"I'm so sorry, Remus.  I turned out to be the very worst thing that ever could have happened to you.  I tried to love you.  I really did, but I just couldn't give you the love you really needed.  My heart wasn't in it, and that was so unfair to you.  I simply couldn't let anyone take the place that Severus held in my heart.  I should never have let you talk me into becoming your lover.  If I'd been stronger and followed my heart and my conscience things would have turned out so much better for both of us.  I hope you can forgive me someday for all the pain I caused you."  With a sad sigh, she brought the shirt down away from her face and laid it gently on the bed smoothing it tenderly with her hand.

With a much heavier heart, she rose from the bed and began to unfasten her gown.  Slowly she exchanged her clothes for a nightgown and went over to her dresser to remove her earrings.  On top of the dresser lay the moonstone necklace glimmering softly in the candlelight.  She reached out to touch it gently.  Reminders of Remus' kindness were everywhere and his presence was likely to fill this cottage for a long time to come.  It was probably just as well that she'd be moving back in with Severus instead of him coming here.  It would be unbearably awkward every time one of them came across some reminder of her affair with the werewolf.  She'd have to be sure that she checked the cottage over thoroughly before Severus ever set foot here again.  No need to take even the slightest chance of causing him any more pain…not when they were finally beginning to heal and finding their way back to each other.

Extinguishing the candles, she climbed into her bed and tried to get herself to sleep.  Hoping to find some comfort, she told herself that this would be the last night she spent alone.  That from now on she'd be once again spending her nights wrapped in her husband's loving embrace.  Just the thought of once more being held in his strong arms, of spending her nights with him in their bed, made her sigh with contentment.  She'd missed the simple warmth of his embrace more than anything else in all the months that she'd spent alone. Now finally that would become her reality again. With that happy thought she drifted off to sleep.  Yet hope for the future warred with sadness over the past invading her dreams, both Remus and Severus swirled through her thoughts all night, making her sleep a rather restless and unsettled affair.

The next day Evangeline woke to face the world feeling somewhat tired.  As she got out of bed and drew back the curtains to face the sunshine of the new morning, she forced herself to banish the doubts and conflictions of the night and instead to feel hopeful and happy as she anticipated a joyful reunion with Severus.  Resolutely she decided that she couldn't change the past…she could only move forward and suddenly she found herself very eager to do so.  Once she'd dressed, she opened a drawer in her dresser and withdrew a box that had sat untouched for a long time.  Inside the box were her wedding and engagement rings, along with Severus' wedding band.  With a smile on her face, she removed her rings from the box and slipped them back onto her finger.  A peaceful comforting feeling came over her as she looked at them, it felt so good to wear them again, to know that they truly held meaning for the future instead of simply being reminders of the past.  Then she picked up Severus' ring and held it in her hand.  She'd give it back to him today.  Hopefully he'd want to put it on again and once more proclaim to the world that he was her husband, and they belonged together.                    

Eager to see how well Poppy's treatments had gone, she left the confines of her tiny cottage and returned to the rambling hugeness of Hogwarts castle.  When she entered the infirmary, she saw Severus sitting on the edge of his bed, buttoning up his shirt.  As he hadn't seen her enter the room, she crept quietly up behind him, knelt on the bed, and slipped her arms around his slender body, squeezing gently as she placed a kiss on his neck.  "Good morning, Severus.  How are you feeling this morning?"

In answer, he turned around and grabbed her tightly, pulling her off the bed and across his lap to be held securely in his arms as he bent and kissed her thoroughly.  The feeling of being in his arms again, of having his lips pressed once more to hers as his tongue explored the inside of her mouth and warred playfully with her own, was indescribably wonderful.   Oh, yes, looking to the future was a happy thing and greatly to be desired.

When he finally pulled his face back from her own, she smiled contentedly up at him.  "I take that to mean that you're feeling better this morning."

He returned her smile.  "I feel much better than I have in quite some time.  Poppy's treatments have already worked wonders.  I'd forgotten how it felt to be able to move freely without stiffness or burning irritation to my skin.  The scars had been so constricting for such a long time; it had felt as if I was wearing clothing that was far too tight and that pinched in all the wrong places.  Although visually most of the scars are still there, they no longer bind my limbs and rub against my clothes with each movement.  I'm beginning to feel human again.  It's been a long time."

Lifting a hand to brush his hair back from his face, she smiled even brighter.  "That's wonderful.  Poppy will be able to put things right again, you'll see.  The future will be much brighter than the past."

"If you're in it, Evangeline, I have no doubt that that will prove to be true.  However, there are still things in the past that we need to deal with."

She nodded thoughtfully.  "Yes.  Here's one."  She reached into her pocket and drew out his wedding band.  Holding it out to him with a solemn air, she asked, "Do you want this back, Severus?"

After a moment's hesitation, he released her from his grasp and allowed her to sit up next to him on the narrow bed, as he reached out and took the ring from her hand.  Swallowing hard he stared at it for a moment as if unsure just what to do with it, then he slipped it back onto his slightly trembling finger.  "Before you arrived, Albus came to see me.  We talked about a lot of things, but one of the things we discussed was renewing the binding magic that the Dark Lord broke.  Would you be willing to renew our vows, Evangeline?  It's not really necessary to the legality of the marriage, but the binding does lend an intimacy to the relationship that I've found that I miss…very much."  His dark eyes earnestly searched her face for her response.

So happy she felt as if her heart would be unable to contain it all, she smiled up at him.  "Oh, Severus…of course I would.  I've missed that emotional connection, too…so very much.  I vividly remember when it was severed.  The shock left me unconscious on the floor of your classroom.  Afterwards I felt so unfocused…not sure at first just what had happened to me.  It should never have happened.  I'll be more than happy to renew the binding.  It's been missing from my life for far too long.  I need to feel that deep connection again."

Immensely relieved, he smiled at her. "I'm glad you feel that way.  I told Albus that, with your agreement, we'd take care of that little detail later this afternoon.  Does that meet with your approval?"

She nodded.  "Absolutely.  The sooner, the better.  Now, are you ready to get out of here?"

His smile broadened.  "More than ready.  Poppy had somewhere she had to go, but before she left, she told me that I was free to leave as soon as you got here.  I'll need to return tomorrow night for another intensive treatment apparently, then I'll only need to come in a few more times during the day, no more overnight stays.  In a week or so, the worst of the scarring should be gone or at least extremely minimized.  No longer will that be all you'll see when you look at me.  I'd have never believed it could be so easy."

"Severus…that would never be all I'd see…no matter what."  They exchanged smiles once more.  "Amazingly some things are easy.  I'm so glad this is turning out to be one of them."

He stood up and looked down at her seriously.  "Yes well, I think it's time that the two of us faced something that won't be so easy."

She stood as well taking his hand in hers and looking up at him in concern.  "What do you mean?"

"Our daughter needs a name, and we need to give her one…together."

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While a brisk wind chilled their bodies to match the heavy coldness in their hearts, Severus stood with his arms wrapped tightly around Evangeline, his heavy woolen cloak enfolded the two of them as she leaned her back against the solidity of his chest.  Sadly they stared at the standing stone in the lonely little graveyard and tried to draw comfort from each other.

With a deep twinge of pain and a tightness in her throat, Evangeline whispered, "What do you suppose that thing is that's buried with our daughter, Severus?  Everyone was so sure it was your head.  I should've never believed them, but it seemed so real…so certain."

Severus gently rested his chin on the top of her head as he replied softly.  "I don't know.  It was obviously created by powerful dark magic, a form of transfiguration most likely, probably using bits taken directly from me after I was captured at Malfoy Manor.  I don't remember that time…I think I was unconscious for quite a while, at first.  I'm so sorry that happened.  It must've been indescribably awful for you.  I can't even imagine what it must've been like to open that box and find that horror inside."

Haltingly Evangeline nodded as her tears flowed silently down her face leaving stiff frozen tracks on the pale skin.  "It was the single most horrible moment of my life.  It destroyed so much.  We can renew the binding magic and heal most of your wounds, but we can't ever replace the time we lost together or the child that Voldemort's malevolence took from us.  She's lost to us forever.  I wasn't even here when they buried her.  I never saw her…never held her…I should've been stronger.  Instead, I was hiding inside my grief, trying to escape from my pain.  Sometimes I dream about her.  Our little girl.  She has your dark hair and eyes and the sweetest smile I've ever seen, and she runs to me with her arms outstretched, so full of love and life and…I…I always wake up crying.  It's so unfair!  I should have protected her!  I should have been stronger…why wasn't I stronger?!"

Snape strengthened his hold on his wife and held her more tightly as she turned her face to his chest and began to cry more forlornly while guilt and pain crept up and sank their nasty little teeth into her soul once more.  He closed his eyes and listened to the misery that poured from her heart and filled his own in turn.  "Please, don't blame yourself, Evangeline.  None of this was your fault; you did everything you could.  We simply have to face up to this and move on.  The only thing we can do for her now is to give her her own identity.  She shouldn't rest in a grave marked by her father's name.  She needs her own."

Trying to regain her emotional control, Evangeline wiped her tears from her face with stiff fingers and nodded as she tried to calm her ragged breathing enough to speak.  "Yes," she whispered hoarsely.  "We'd never gotten to the point of thinking of names for her, though, Severus.  I can remember talking about it that morning you …left.  You were supposed to think about baby names.  I don't suppose you ever got around to it, though.  Do you have any suggestions now?"

With an air of solemnity he nodded as his long fingers caressed his wife's hair comfortingly.  "You were right about me, Evangeline.  I was afraid to become a father, and so I found myself putting off and pushing away all thoughts of the practical aspects of fatherhood, as if that would allow me to escape from the reality for a short while longer.  Unfortunately that included choosing a name for our child.  I deeply regret that now, and I've actually thought about it quite a lot since I've been back.   It seems to me that it might be a good choice to name her after your mother…Galatea."

"My mother would be happy with that, but there should be something from your family, too, Severus."

He snorted and shook his head regretfully.  "By and large, the Snape family hasn't run to pleasant sounding names.  I'd hate to saddle her with Agrippina or Hortensia."

Evangeline smiled sadly up into his eyes, "They don't really trip lightly from the tongue, do they?  What was the name of your great aunt, whose ring I'm so fond of?"

Snape's expression lightened slightly, "Ah, yes.  She married into the family, thus she fared better in that way.  Her name was Adriana."

"Adriana.  I like it.  Adriana Galatea Snape."  She looked up at him for his approval.

He nodded in satisfaction.  "I like it, too.  Shall I?"  He withdrew his wand.  At her nod of agreement, he made the alteration in the headstone.  Instead of his name incised in the hard gray granite, it now bore the name of their daughter and the date of her birth and death, sadly one and the same.

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Tired eyes looked out through a window located on one of the upper floors of the castle and sadly watched the two figures standing very much together in their shared grief.   As Remus Lupin looked on, the tall wizard drew his wand and changed the name on the headstone; the two figures standing in the snow stared at it for a bit longer and then turned and slowly made their way back to the castle tightly wrapped in each other's arms.

Lupin was too far away to read the name that now was carved into the stone, but it was a good feeling to know that the innocent, murdered by evil, now had her own name to rest under for eternity.  Bit by bit, Evangeline and Severus were picking up the pieces of their life and moving forward.

With steady resolve, the werewolf made his way back to the quiet of his room and withdrew a piece of parchment from his desk.  Then with determination in his heart, he sat down to write on it.  There was one other thing he could do to help them to face the future more easily…and he knew it would help him, too.  So very much.

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Author's Notes:  For those who celebrate it, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Dark Jezebel:  Glad you're happy.

Whale of the World:  The transfiguration treatment won't eliminate all of Severus' scars, but it will minimize the worst of them and make life easier and more comfortable for him.

Zagzagael:   No, I hate stories where everything always works out perfectly.  Life isn't like that.  Severus will always bear scars from this period of his life, both physical and emotional.

Snapefan51:  I imagine that Poppy will probably tell Minerva that she used their treatment on Severus if he is willing for her to.  That she's treating him for injuries suffered while he was imprisoned is unlikely to remain a secret at any rate.  You'll just have to read the rest of the story and make your own judgments as to whether Severus and Evangeline are going to be happy again.

Gracelynn:  Not being able to consummate their love for each other would be very hard on both of them and wearing on the relationship in the long run.  Thanks for your kind words.

Arsinoe3:  Snape isn't a man who asks for help easily or is too willing to even admit that there's a problem.  He needed to have someone else force the issue.

WendeeB:  It was a nice surprise to see your comments on ff.net.  :)  It's never silly to comment on the content of the story.  I want to hear what you think.

Bookwitch:  If I write another story about Severus and Evangeline, I will try to have Severus meet his portrait, but it's not going to happen here.  Poppy is very competent in my opinion…obviously.  :)

Arachne's Child:  I know I'm often guilty of having more shoes to drop than an Acromantula, but this story is coming to an end.  Lucius will have to wait patiently for another tale to wreak havoc in.

Rickfan37:  I'm so glad you found my transfiguration treatment plausible.  Hopefully most of the loose ends will be tied up to everyone's satisfaction.  There are, of course, things which will have no easy resolution.

Nataly Ravenlock:  Soap Operas tend to deal with emotional upheaval and so does this story.  I won't deny it.  Snape had what seemed to him to be valid reason's to let Evangeline go and be with Remus.  He wanted her safe and happy…two things he didn't think he could do for her in his present condition.  When he thought her dead suddenly none of that mattered to him except how much he loved her.  Sorry it didn't work for you.

Whitewolf02:  Thanks.  I'm glad you think my characterization of Snape is on target.

Werecat99:  I'm glad you were able to find some free time to catch up.  I know you've been awfully busy.  This chapter will mark our last glimpse of the painting, hope you enjoyed it. :)

CrisisKris:  Thank you.  Please, relax.  It's easy sailing from here on out.